All The Pretty Horses

The Voyage to Oklahoma

Our long journey began in an airport in Paris in the 1940s: just two women, alone save for a hoard of pastry, facing the beginning of a dusty road to the very far west.

That's a 'Get Smart' style Russian walkie talkie, not a cell phone

Our spirits were high, though the miles before us were long, and the warm sun greeted us cheerfully from behind the industrial plate-glass.

It being Paris in the 40s and all, I am exclaiming something to the effect of 'Ooh la la, sacre bleu! Je suis une bibliotheque chevre au vin!'  Basically I was swooning with excitement to get on the plane.

Finally, about 70 years later, we arrived in Oklahoma!  Cue this video please.  Actually there was no one singing in the airport when we landed, but once we spied our limo our hearts sure were!  We met Shelley and Paige first, and all decided no dementors/party poopers would be allowed in, or at least wouldn't be given complimentary mini soda cans.

Of course we weren't disappointed, everyone who came was amazing, fun, sweet, and a joy to be around.  This was the best group of ladies anyone could have wished to be stuck with in the middle of no where for an entire weekend.  Here's Ashley (NOT Emily) and Dani who are sisters from Idaho and the last to fly in.

After we rounded everyone up, William our driver took us to downtown Tulsa (it's a real city, with big buildings and running water!) to pick up Gina and Sara.  We may have been chanting loudly as they walked towards the limo- we're a rowdy crowd.  Once we snagged Gina away from her cute new hubby, we all took off on the loooong drive out to the ranch.  On the way of course, someone had to use the little girl's room, so William pulled us over at... this place.  Now previously, I had the impression that Oklahoma was a wholesome, family-friendly state, but, well... see for yourself what kind of establishments they have littered all over:

Now not only do they have these ... "gas stations" all over the place, they sell merchandise so people can advertise their proclivities to the whole world.  Look, they even sell BOXERS with the logo pasted all over them.  Just saying.

Now before you guys go judging me and my fashion sense... let me just say that I heard it from the horse's mouth that a certain single cowboy whose chaps you have all likely enjoyed drooling over has *this very same hat*. 

Cowboy Approved.

Once we finally pried ourselves away from this establishment, and drooled over the Sonic next-door (which we resisted, based solely on the powerful motivation that Ree was at home slaving away over the stove for us), we spent another 6 hours getting to know each other while traversing dirt roads and tumbleweed deep out into the pitch-black prairie.  It was so dark, by the way, that when we finally saw the blazing lights of the Lodge looming ahead, William was so excited that we all nearly flipped seven times down a cliff in our giant limo.

So happy to be alive!

Of course, he was much too skilled to lose control, and we all gratefully clawed our way out onto solid ground to begin our fabulous weekend!  Stay tuned for more...

Pioneer Woman Pretty Much Rocks

I just met a number of truly incredible women, thanks to the Pioneer Woman's sushi weekend giveaway.  I am in love with everyone I just met and it's pretty lonesome now that I've been home from the Lodge for less than a day.  I'm a wimp!  I'm probably going to post up 36 entries about every little detail that I can remember, but Ree beat us all to the punch!

Ree was twittering the whole weekend (click to go check 'em all out)... including of course the time when my mom smelled some bacon... and wondered aloud if perhaps her butt was on fire?  (Here's the twitpic of that moment). 

She also already posted about the amazing meal she made us on Friday night, and of course HOW to make it and be a domestic goddess too (she totally really honestly in-real-life is, btw).  Or maybe that's a separate post... well just go read the whole entire site okay?  If you're not an addict already be prepared.

And of course, there is a big old post that chronicles our entire weekend together, complete with lots of pics (one of which may or may not feature a certain single country gentleman's Wranglers) and her usual witty charm.  Another post about the sushi may be upcoming too.  Oh... my... bacon butt was it good!  Everything.  Amazing.

So right, I need to go work on my own pictures.  Some of the lovely ladies already have some up on facebook, so I apologize in advance for also ganking those and posting them.  It's your guys' fault for not having blogs that I can link to, okay?  Friends section is looking really bare over there on the right...

Hanging out with Melissa and the Girls

My friend Melissa was staying in Amherst for a week, so we finally (after forever!) got to see her and her beautiful daughters, Evie and Rory. We spent the day watching our little toddlers run around and get into relatively peaceful altercations over fire trucks and bikes. It was so much fun, and I hope we'll be seeing them again soon (much sooner than last time!).



Melissa and I were roommates (in a triple) during our first semester of college. We had some differences (as teenage girls do), but after we lived safely in separate rooms we became much better friends... and now we're all grown up with little munchkins to take care of! Where does the time go...



Melissa is a lot more laid back and fun than I am. She lets her kids play with water *indoors*... I almost died! I really need to chill out on my OCD freakiness that' I've developed, because the kids had so much fun splashing and playing with ice cubes.



While the girls went upstairs to take their nap, Arin took the opportunity to explore the gentler toys that he doesn't have at home. They had these fantastic and realistic looking cats (and REAL cats that Arin loved), and a lot of baby dolls! Bobo loves him some baby dolls, but I guess he wanted to wait to enjoy them when the girls weren't there to see. :)



Missa, if you're reading this, thanks so much for having us over, we missed you terribly! Let's do it again soon, there must be some fun fall stuff going on at those farms now!